South Florida Crime

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) – A South Florida man has been sentenced to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to DUI manslaughter, but relatives of the man who died in the hit and run crash said it’s not the sentence they were hoping for.

“It’s not enough. It’s not enough for a life but I’m grateful,” said an emotional Lee Maron, mother of the victim.

There were plenty of tears and anguish from the family of Eric Maron who died when he was struck on his motorcycle by Robert Jones in September 2009.

(Photo Credit: CBS4) Eric Maron was killed in Sept. 2009.

Jones was driving his 7-year-old stepdaughter to school while drunk when he hit and killed Maron near the intersection of Pembroke Road and Island Drive.

Jones fled the scene with his stepdaughter in the car, but police soon caught up with him.

He had a blood alcohol level nearly three times higher than the legal limit.

“People don’t always drink and drive, there are other options and they need to take those,” said Lori Maron, the victim’s widow. “This was at 7:20 in the morning. I was watching the traffic report, that’s how I learned my husband was dead. I saw him underneath that man’s car.”

Jones had nothing to say in court Thursday when he faced the judge for sentencing and he avoided looking at the victims’ family which crowded the courtroom. Jones pleaded guilty earlier this month to DUI manslaughter and child neglect.

“He has taken a family and torn it to shreds, there’s not much you can say other than we miss him so much, daily, he’s thought of daily, we used to Facebook him, we love him, we don’t have him anymore,” cried Lee Maron.

When Jones was arrested in 2009, he already had a warrant out for his arrest in two Maryland DUI cases.

Jones will now spend ten years in prison, followed by 15 years of probation and he’ll never be able to legally drive again.